The Hobbit in Lego

Earlier this week I had a look at the cost o f collecting the fellowship of the Ring in minifigures. Today I intend to find out what it would cost me to add the 13 dwarves from The Hobbit to my collection. This is a little easier, given that each of the 13 dwarves is only available in a single set.

First up is the Unexpected Gathering set. This set features Bag End, Bilbo’s home, and is a set I would be quite tempted to get. It costs R1199 or about $70, but it does come with a lot of minifigs: Balin, Bofur, Bombur and Dwalin, as well as Gandalf and Bilbo. That’s 4 of the dwarves right there, but it still works out to about R200 per minifig. Each of the dwarves in this set can be picked up for about R55 on BrickLink. That’s about R220 so far.

Next is the Barrel Escape, a moderately priced set at R749 ($40). This set has the dwarves Óin and Glóin, plus a couple of Mirkwood elves and Bilbo. (If you’re interested in Bilbo, he goes for R25 or R45 on BrickLink, depending on which outfit he’s wearing.) That’s two more dwarves, at around R150 each. On BrickLink, they’re about R75 each, bringing our running total to R370 for 6 dwarves.

To get Thorin Oakenshield, as well as Bifur, you’ll need the Attack of the Wargs set. This one features a big tree and some orcs to attack it, plus two wargs and Yazneg. At R799 ($50) for the set, that’s R160 per minifig, not counting the wargs. Considering you can grab Thorin for around R50 and Bifur for R40 at BrickLink, you’re not getting a great deal on this set if you’re only interested in the dwarves. At this point, we’d have spent R460 on 8 dwarves.

Next up is the Goblin King Battle, the most expensive Hobbit set at R1499 ($99). This large set includes three dwarves, Dori, Ori and Nori, plus Gandalf, some goblins, and the large goblin king. Still, that’s R190 per minifig. On BrickLink, you’re looking at just under R70 for each dwarf. So that will bring our total to R670 for 11 dwarves.

The final two dwarves, Fili and Kili, appear in the Escape from Mirkwood Spiders set. This scene is not actually in the first Hobbit movie, and features Legolas in his Mirkwood armour, and a female elf called Tauriel. Both dwarves can be purchased for around R40 (the elves cost about R50 each). The cost of the set is around R430 ($30), meaning a cost of around R105 per minifig. If we add these last two dwarves to our collection, our total for all 13 dwarves would be R750.

Final calculations

Bought individually, the dwarves will set you back at least R750, assuming you can get them at the lowest possible price, and not including any shipping fees. However, if you buy all five sets, you’re looking at a whopping R4675. I think the look on Bilbo’s face below sums up my thoughts on that price!